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CARMEL RICKARD: A taxing question

A tax dispute between an Irish Traveller family and the country’s tax authorities has raised questions around fairness

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09 April 2020 - 05:00

Forget the handsome "gypsy rover" of the Clancy Brothers song, whistling in the green woods. The modern Irish Traveller, at least in the case of "JSS" and others against Ireland’s Tax Appeal Commission, is a different person — and a long way from the greensward.

The five men — an unnamed father and four sons — are part of an Irish travelling community. Theirs is still the nomadic life of their ancestors — they work abroad for a number of months every year, staying in their caravans as they move around, working mostly as "tarmacadam contractors" — building and resurfacing roads. When they are in Ireland, they reside in Rathkeale, in Limerick county.

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